Why I Left My 6-Figure Salary To Start A Business?

As I’ve shared with you in my story, I was really lucky to have worked for my first company. I was earning a 6-figure salary back then and travelling the world on paid business trips. I stayed in 5-star hotels and ate sumptuous food. I was working with the best people who always encouraged me to step up my game.

You can just imagine how difficult it was for some people to understand why I wanted to leave the corporate world. From the outside, it was a perfect career for me, and it’s true. But inside, I longed for something different.

Here are the reasons why:

Freedom

“I felt that even though I was earning that much, I was a slave to my work.”

Every job has its light days and its stressful days. However, I vividly remember my breaking point. It was Holy Thursday and my parents travelled for 10 hours from Bicol just to attend our much-awaited family vacation. We were supposed to travel to Batangas by 9am that day to relax and bond as a family.

At 8am, I logged on to my computer and checked my email. When I was about to log out, my boss in Latin America messaged me and asked me to submit a report by 1pm that same day. Being the obedient employee that I am, I obliged because I knew how badly she needed the report.

My parents, brother, and sister were all ready to leave, except for me. They did not say anything but I felt their patience thinning after every hour that passed. Every minute that I spent doing that report meant fewer minutes to spend with my parents, who rarely came to Manila.

I submitted the report by 1pm and hurriedly ate lunch so we could go to Batangas already. On our way there, I felt so guilty and I said to myself that I didn’t want to be a slave to my work anymore! I wanted more freedom!

So beginning that day, I devoted more effort to Ink All-You-Can so that I could accelerate its success and be able to quit my corporate job faster.

Flexibility

“I wanted to bring my kids to school and go on family vacations whenever I wanted to.”

That time, I wasn’t married yet, though I did have officemates who had kids already. One of the common topics that we had during our lunch is the fact that they had trouble managing their time between work and family.

They wanted to bring their kids to school and attend important school events, but they couldn’t because of work. One officemate recounted that the schedule of his 5-year old child is 12:00nn – 3:00pm. How could he possibly bring his kid to school with his fixed work schedule? In addition, his little boy was also playing basketball at 4 – 6pm. His kid had been begging him to watch his game but how could he? He said that he often struggled to explain to his kid why he missed those events, because when he says it’s because of work, his kid will say, “Na naman?!”

I knew deep inside me that in a few years time, I will run into the same situation as theirs. So I said to myself, I need to do something about it now, before it’s too late.

Financial Rewards

“I wanted to retire by age 45 without worrying about where to get our food and my kids’ tuition fees.”

I read this article about the irony of time, energy and money. It basically says that when we were kids, we had all the time and energy in the world but we didn’t have money. When we grow up, we work very hard to earn money. It is during this phase of our lives that we focus too much on our work and tend to lose time for ourselves and for our family.

And then when the time comes for us to retire, we now have the money and we have the time to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Unfortunately, we don’t have the energy anymore to enjoy it. Low bat na, may arthritis, may high blood pa, at kung anu-ano pang limitations. It struck me!

When can we then have the time, energy, and money to enjoy life?! I realized that if I don’t make that conscious effort, I’ll fall into that same trap. So I said to myself that I want to retire at 45 years old and I know that’s just not possible if I continue as an employee.

Passion

“I want to explore, learn new things, and follow my passion.”

While I was working for my first company, I had the privilege of being the first and only employee to be assigned to one of our company’s distributors for nine (9) whole months. It was part of a sabbatical program initiated by our Finance Director in Asia. The distributor that I was assigned to had been incurring losses for several years already, and my objective was to make them profitable before the project ends.

To understand how to fix the huge problem of that distributor, I immersed myself in its operations. I got involved not just in accounting but also in sales, warehouse, logistics, etc. I rode the truck, joined the salesman to visit public markets, and met different sari-sari store owners. I learned how to sell products and run promotions for the stores.

Soon, I was able to implement the necessary changes that made that distributor not just profitable, but one of the most profitable distributors when my sabbatical finished. It was a great feeling of fulfillment that I couldn’t forget.

That experience opened my eyes and made me realize that there is really more to me than just computing numbers and financial analysis. I got interested in learning new things and understanding how sales, marketing, warehouse, delivery, HR, etc. really work together to help a company move forward. I realized that I am bigger than my current work and I didn’t want to be stuck there forever.

People

“I believe that I have the power to help at least 1 person eat 3 times a day.”

Though I was earning much during that time, I also felt a responsibility to help other people. I had relatives who didn’t have work. In the news, I saw people lining up every day under the heat of the sun trying to apply for a job. Every year, schools produced graduates who didn’t know where to go.

Deep inside me, I believe that we have the power to help at least 1 person in our own little way. Not by giving them donations, but by giving them something more sustainable, like work. And if I can help just 1 person, it will make a huge impact in our country.

When I started, being an entrepreneur was not as easy and as popular as it is today. It was a time when once you started a business, people thought that you had been fired from your job or couldn’t get any job at all. But no matter how intimidating starting a business was for me, I had to start doing it and learn as I went along!

But what about you? Why are you reading this post?

I’m sure you’ve heard some or all of the reasons I’ve given. You might have similar or different reasons for wanting to become an entrepreneur.

But no matter what your reasons are, one thing is for sure. If you don’t take action, nothing will happen. Just like all the other wannapreneurs out there who just dream, but never have the guts to start the journey. And starting the journey begins with reading this site and implementing what you will learn here…

We want to help at least 1,000 employees and OFWs to start their own business and become Certified Leapreneurs! We know that transitioning from employee to entrepreneur is a BIG STEP so we want to guide you in this exciting journey.